this pic/gift (Click the link) when I spoke of a yearning to seethis special shrine one more time. The place where I stood andstared, danced with whirling, piercing, bleeding, entranceddervishes who flogged themselves so forcefully that the scenetook root in my brain and I just had to go home and try to flogmyself with a belt. True story. Ouch ! I gave up within a fewdays.....

On Ash Wednesdays and throughout Lent I would stop by andsmear ash on my forehead from a bowl that rested at the entrance.

The thick pungent aroma of Incense was overwhelming and blindingbut the ash was all-important to me back then, for it served asphysical 'proof' for my Christian family to see and approve that yes,I had been to Church (which I hadn't). I saw no wrongdoing

in my trickery since I believed that the ashes were holy anywayas witness the number of devotees from different faiths whostopped by at all hours to pay respect. I respected that.

Such is the power of Baba Jan. Read and appreciate what thisall means to people around the world :

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Call it Synchronicity or auto-sync or co-inky-dink or whateveryou want to call it when random events re-occur inexplicably in an

almost-connected sequence within a short period of time.

I experience this a lot, so much so that sometimes it seems to methat I may have been touched by an Angel. But probably not.....today, it's more likely I've been touched by a Bhut. *

March 25: I was watching the local Houston Fox News station

when I heard them mention Bhut, the world's hottest Chili Pepper.

I was thinking, yeah..... I'm in Texas, where they love their hot

and spicy Chili bowls as much as their flamin' hot Barbecue Wings

and Baby Back Ribs. But this Bhut doesn't come from Texas or

nearby Mexico, where they pride themselves on their production

and exports of Jalapenos and Habaneros. No, this red-hot Chili

Pepper that's hot as Hell thrives in the Indian subcontinent regions

of Manipur, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and each region

wants to lay their claim to fame as if they owned the copyrights to

this red devil from the Plant Genus Capsicum.

But on with my synch-ed story......March 26, the next day, and my

nephew with the 'Superman' avatar sends out a Facebook message :

' Trying to get my hands on bhut chili.....Does anyone knowwhere I can get a hold of one of these peppers?
'

' Hey ! Now that's odd......maybe he was watching the newsat the same time as I was', I said to myself. I had no answer forhim as I saw subsequent messages saying he wanted to eat it and grow it.Hmmm... I decided I had to find the source for Bhut in Texas so I couldwatch him suffer. But before I got to my Googling for the day, three dayspassed and then.....March 29.

I was killing time before the afternoon shift by watching the Travel Channel,and there it was again....on the program called 'Extreme Destinations',a segment featuring the TV host in the act of taking on one of the greatestchallenges he had ever faced : the Four Horsemen Burger which contains four of the hottest chili peppers known to man, including the Bhut !It's stupid, it's dangerous, it's excruciating and it's an insane San Antonio, Texas thang, as extreme as they come.

*In Hindi, the word 'Bhoot' means 'Ghost' ; Western researchers havemade the error of identifying the Bhut pepper as the 'Ghost pepper', fancifullyassociating it with the Devil and the hottest destination you never want to visit, Hell. This is a matter of controversy and opinion for the proud growers ofBhut in the Indian subcontinent according to wikipedia. Read all about the Bhut meaning :